Benjamin Claude Comperry v. State

375 S.W.3d 508, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 5401, 2012 WL 2783167
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 10, 2012·No. 14-11-00616-CR·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

OPINION

JEFFREY V. BROWN, Justice.

Appellant Benjamin Claude Comperry pleaded “guilty” to misdemeanor driving while intoxicated after the trial court denied his motion to suppress the results of a chemical analysis of his blood taken involuntarily. On appeal, Comperry contends the trial court abused its discretion in denying the motion to suppress by applying the wrong standard to determine whether Transportation Code section 724.012(b)(3) justified a warrantless search for his blood. We affirm.

*510 I

In December 2010, Officer Bennie Boles of the La Porte Police Department arrested Comperry for DWI after he was involved in a car accident. Boles took Com-perry to the La Porte jail, where Boles obtained Comperry’s criminal history from a printout of information contained in the Texas Crime Information Center (TCIC) 1 database. Boles reviewed Comperry’s criminal history to determine whether Comperry had been convicted of DWI on two or more previous occasions. If so, Boles understood that Chapter 724 of the Transportation Code required him to obtain a specimen of Comperry’s blood without the necessity of a warrant or Comper-ry’s consent. See Tex. Transp. Code § 724.012(b)(3)(B).

Comperry’s criminal history information showed four “Event Cycles” consisting of a DWI arrest in Harris County, a DWI arrest in Galveston County, and two unrelated misdemeanor arrests. Event Cycle 1, reflecting the Harris County DWI arrest, showed that in July 2006, Comperry was arrested for DWI, pleaded “guilty,” and was convicted in October 2006 of class B misdemeanor DWI in the County Criminal Court at Law No. 5, for which he received a three-day jail sentence and a $600 fíne.

Event Cycle 2, reflecting the Galveston County arrest, showed that in August 2006, Comperry was arrested for DWI. This event cycle reflected that Comperry pleaded “no contest,” was convicted in April 2008 of class B misdemeanor DWI in the Justice of the Peace Court for Precinct 7 of Galveston County, and sentenced to three days in jail with a $100 fine. In the same event cycle, however, the data also reflected that Comperry pleaded “no contest” to obstructing a highway or passageway in the same court, was convicted of a class B misdemeanor, and received the same sentence of three days in jail with a $100 fine. The disposition of the obstructing-a-highway conviction reflected: “CONVICTED — LESSER CHARGE.”

At the hearing on Comperry’s motion to suppress, Comperry stipulated at the outset that he was arrested without a warrant, there was reasonable suspicion for the stop, and there was probable cause for the DWI arrest. Officer Boles was the State’s only witness. Boles testified that, after taking Comperry to jail, he reviewed Comperry’s criminal history from the TCIC database and determined that Com-perry had been convicted of DWI on two previous occasions. Boles read the statutory warnings contained in the DIC-24 form to Comperry, and then asked Com-perry if he would voluntarily submit to a blood test. Comperry refused and signed the DIC-24 form acknowledging his refusal.

Boles also testified that he saw the additional entry in Event Cycle 2 reflecting the obstructing-a-highway conviction, but he believed that Comperry had been charged with and convicted of a second offense arising out of the same transaction as the Galveston County DWI. Boles explained that he believed this because “there was nothing to indicate there weren’t two charges filed, and because the TCIC printout showed that Comperry had been convicted of two different offenses on the same date.” Boles did not recall whether Comperry told him the Galveston case was *511 reduced to obstructing a highway, but he said that even if Comperry had told him that, it would have no bearing on the situation because he believed the TCIC data to be a reliable and credible source of information.

Comperry testified that he was not convicted of DWI as a result of the Galveston County arrest; he was convicted only of obstruction. Comperry also testified that when he refused to willingly give a specimen of his blood, Boles stated that he believed Comperry had been convicted of DWI on two previous occasions, thus invoking the mandatory provision of section 724.012(b)(3) of the Transportation Code. In response, Comperry testified that he explained to Boles that he had been convicted of DWI only one time and that the Galveston arrest resulted in a conviction only for the lesser charge of obstructing, not a second DWI conviction. According to Comperry, Boles made no effort to confirm whether his statements were correct.

A day after hearing evidence and arguments, the trial court orally announced its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The trial court’s findings and conclusions included the following:

Based upon the hearing that we had yesterday in court, based upon the testimony and argument of counsel, while I find this is a very difficult decision because this area is unsettled because it’s new, I’m making the following findings: That the officer, Officer Boles, appeared credible in his testimony. He testified that he arrested the defendant for driving while intoxicated. There was a stipulation of the parties, as I recall, that the arrest was made upon probable cause without a warrant. Further, the officer testified that the defendant refused to give a breath sample voluntarily, and we received written evidence to that effect in State’s Exhibit No. 2 [the DIC-24],
Officer Boles testified that he checked at the time of the defendant’s arrest for his criminal history through TCIC/ NCIC; that he received that information and that the same information was captured in State’s Exhibit No. 3. That he reviewed that information at the time of the defendant’s arrest and based upon the information in Cycles 1 and 2, he formed the belief that the defendant had been convicted twice before of driving while intoxicated, once in Harris County and once in Galveston County. Based upon that belief, Officer Boles then required a blood draw from the defendant, based upon Transportation Code, Section 724.012, and in that section we would refer to (b)(3)(B).
Further, I find that TCIC/NCIC is a credible source of criminal history information, [and] that TCIC printouts are normally reliable information regarding criminal histories. I’ll further find that in this case the information for Cycle No. 2 in State’s Exhibits No. 3 is confusing and possibly incorrect in the way it is displayed. I will further find and, I believe, [it] was stipulated by the parties that this defendant actually has one pri- or conviction for DWI ... [r]ather than two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated. Based upon the evidence and the law presented and the arguments, I will conclude that Officer Boles was reasonable in his belief that the defendant had two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated, having relied upon normally reliable information from a credible source in forming that belief. I’ll further conclude that Officer Boles required the blood draw as a result of this reasonable, though incorrect, understanding of the defendant’s criminal history.

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Benjamin Claude Comperry v. State, 375 S.W.3d 508, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 5401, 2012 WL 2783167 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

375 S.W.3d 508 (Benjamin Claude Comperry v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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